I am a big fan of the Olympics, and (yawn) I have been staying up late to watch them. Here are a few random thoughts which I will not attempt to link together in any coherent fashion:

Gymnastics is really cool to watch, but there are a few problems. First, in some countries (read:China) they take these kids from their homes at the age of 3 to train, and they see their families maybe once a year. No medal is worth that. Also, the scores are all based on deductions, so gymnasts probably have some crazy inferiority complexes. If they gave points for doing cool things instead of starting off perfect and deducting, it might ease a little of the pressure. Also, I'm insanely jealous of the guys who can compete on the rings, which is the hardest athletic demonstration I can imagine.

There are far too many swimming events. Just drop the athletes into the ocean and give a medal to the last one still afloat. Now that’s good television.

Bronze medals seem lame. The medals should be platinum, gold, and silver. Then you could at least be a little proud if you came in third.

Maybe they could cut down on the drug scandals by having a drug-free Olympics and a hopped-up Olympics. It would be interesting to see the differences in performance.

And finally, we need the Olympics more often than every four years. Too many athletes pass their peak after one Olympics and before the next. These people train all their lives for a chance to earn a chunk of random metal with a little gold mixed in, so the least we could do is give them a few more chances.

If I have any more ridiculous thoughts as the games progress, I’ll do my best to keep them to myself, but I’m not making any promises.

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Just last night I mentioned that, in gymnastics, I love how after they complete a big tumble or flip or whatever (like on the floor routine), how they do the "ta da!" pose. It is just really funny to me. Like they're 7. "Look at me, Mom! ta da!" I'm making this pose more often, after completing every day tasks in my life. Even if no one is there.

(and, now that i think about it, I actually DO do that after I win at chess... by myself... on the computer. Arms up and i look around like I am the champion. Sad.)